Report: Google Settlement May Be Modified
Justice Department concerned about antitrust issues
-- Library Journal, 09/17/2009
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In an intriguing exclusive, Bloomberg News reports that Google and the plaintiffs in the Google Book Search settlement are discussing modifications with the Justice Department, which has begun an inquiry into antitrust issues.
Such modifications would allow greater competition in the sale of such books online, according to Bloomberg. There’s been no mention yet of modifications—such as oversight of pricing or library representatives on the Book Rights Registry—requested by library groups and academic authors.
New York Law School Professor James Grimmelmann commented that the report suggests “that either a deal announcement is imminent (and more people are being brought into the loop), or that this is a deliberate plant by one side.”
“The other fascinating signal here is that there wouldn’t be anything to negotiate over unless DoJ thought there were serious enough issues with the settlement that it would have legal grounds to oppose it and that it would be worth opposing it,” he added.
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